Los Carpinteros: A Final Good-Bye at the Phillips

Los Carpinteros, the internationally acclaimed Cuban artist collective known for their immersive sculptural installations and large drawings, recently announced the dissolution of the group. After 26 years of collaboration—creating artworks that critique dominant ideologies and power structures with humor and political undertones—the two remaining members, Marco Castillo and Dagoberto Rodríguez, have decided to split and pursue separate artistic paths. I got to know them years ago when we started to discuss an Intersections contemporary art project for the Phillips. I love that their work beautifully blends playfulness of form and concept with a sense of subtle irony and intentional ambiguity, leaving openness for interpretation. I was fortunate to visit Marco in Havana this spring and Dago in Madrid just a couple of weeks ago before the news went public. We decided to move on with our project as planned and showcase it at the Phillips in fall 2019. Thereby, we reversed the museum’s tradition of celebrating “firsts” this time around to proudly be the last art institution to honor and say good-bye to this wonderful collective.​ Stay tuned for more information about the Phillips’s Los Carpinteros Intersections project.

Vesela Sretenović, Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art

Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art visited Marco Castillo of Los Carpinteros in Havana, February 2018

Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art Vesela Sretenović visits Marco Castillo of Los Carpinteros in Havana, February 2018

Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art Vesela Sretenovic visit Dago of Los Carpinteros in Madrid, August 2018

Board Chair Dani Levinas and Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art Vesela Sretenović visit Dagoberto Rodríguez of Los Carpinteros in Madrid, August 2018

Cuban Impressions, Part 3

Pictures taken in Havana, Cuba, during our second Phillips Collection trip to visit the 11th Havana Biennial, May 21–28, 2012. The (pre-revolution) building in the center was designed in 1958 by the Cuban architect Antonio Quintana Simonetti. It houses the Ministerio de Salud Pública, the Ministry of Public Health, as well as murals by Afro-Cuban surrealist painter Wifredo Lam and the Cuban revolutionary artist Raúl Martínez.

Calle 23, Havana, Cuba, May 27, 2012. Photos: Klaus Ottmann